Three firefighters die on the same day from 9/11-related illnesses

The Fire Department of New York says three retired firefighters who worked at ground zero have died on the same day from 9/11-related illnesses.

Lt. Howard Bischoff and firefighters Robert Leaver and Daniel Heglund died Monday.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro says their deaths are 'a painful reminder that 13 years later we continue to pay a terrible price for the department's heroic efforts.'

Victims: Lt Howard Bischoff (left) and firefighter Robert Leaver (right) were two of three retired FDNY firefighters who died Monday from 9/11-related illnesses. Lt Bischoff and firefighter Leaver grew up together in Brooklyn and were childhood friends. Firefighter Heglund (center) served 20 years with the FDNY and died the day before his 59th birthday

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Fighters: A picture posted to Facebook earlier this month, shows Heglund (left) as he battled cancer. The names of the three men will be added to a memorial of 9/11 firefighter first responders

The three worked at ground zero after the World Trade Center attacks, and stayed with the department for around two decades. One had leukemia, one had esophageal cancer and a third had colon cancer.

Firefighter Heglund died one day before his 59th birthday.

Lt Bischoff and firefighter Leaver grew up together in Brooklyn and were childhood friends.

'The New York City Fire Department was the only agency that had health data on firefighters pre-9/11,' fire union president Stephen Cassidy told CBS New York. 'The study that they did in the first year after 9/11 showed that firefighters lost 12 years lung capacity in the blink of an eye.'

A group of lawmakers are currently working to pass a bill that would extend medical benefits to 9/11 first responders.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation reauthorization Act would extend benefits offered by the original Zadroga bill which are set to expire in two years.

The new bill would extend those benefits for another 24 years.

The names of the three firefighters will be added to a special memorial for 9/11 firefighter first responders.

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Aftermath: The Uniformed Fire Officers Association says first responders started showing health problems soon after the attack on the World Trade Center. Above, a firefighter walks away from ground zero on September 11, 2001

September 28 @ 9:30 am

September 12, 2011

By the time Stephen Siller was 10 years old, he had already lost both parents. Although he went through a period of struggle, because of the love of his siblings and the values instilled in him by his parents, he grew up to be an extraordinary individual. More than most, he knew that time was precious and accomplished much in his 34 years.

On September 11th, firefighter Stephen Siller had just gotten off the late shift at Squad 1, Park Slope, Brooklyn. He was on his way to play golf with his brothers on that bright clear day when his scanner told of the first plane hitting the Twin Towers. When he heard the news, he called his wife Sally to tell her he would be late because he had to help those in need. He returned to Squad 1 to get his gear, then took his final heroic steps to the World Trade Center. When Stephen drove his truck to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, it was already closed to traffic . With sixty pounds of gear strapped to his back, he ran through the Tunnel, hoping to meet up with his own company, Squad 1.

Stephen was first and foremost a loving husband and father to five children. He was also a dedicated fireman, devoted brother, loyal friend and committed neighbor. His life brought great light to those around him.

Stephen’s brother Russell wrote these words for Stephen’s Memorial which best expresses the effect of his life on all who knew him. “Like the comet Halle-Bopp that streaked across the sky a few years ago, Stephen’s light startled us all. When we thought it could not get any brighter, it got brighter still. Just when we were enjoying it so much, for it was so unexpected, so breathtaking, it shot across the sky and went well beyond us all, deeper into the mind of God.”

Stephen’s life and his heroic death serve as reminder to us all to live life to the fullest and to spend our time hear on earth doing good - this is his legacy.

Family friend, Jay Price, shared thoughts on Stephen’s lasting legacy when he wrote, “Every momentous event, even a tragedy, has its symbolic figures. September 11th was no different; it just had a few more of them. Rudy Giuliani, Father Mychal Judge, the four guys on United Flight 93…a hundred more…a thousand. None bigger than Stephen Siller, whose stature only grows with time as New Yorkers and people from around the world follow his footsteps.”

The Run/Walk is approximately 5K or 3.1 Miles

Date: Sunday, September 25th, 2011

Start Time: 9:30 AM

**Registration will now be located at the IKEA parking Lot at 1 Beard Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York

Location of Race: Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, New York City, NY

$50.00 Registration fee if registered before Monday, September 19, 2011

$75.00 Registration fee if registered after Monday September 19, 2011

Please note* If you do not wish to pay $75.00 late fee, or wait on long lines for the LATE ON-LINE REGISTRATION, you must register before Midnight, Monday, September 19th!

Ángel Franco/The New York TimesMary Kocy on the Hudson River. Ms. Kocy hopes to circumnavigate Manhattan on water skis for charity.

Ángel Franco/The New York TimesMary Kocy

Mary Kocy’s circumnavigation of Manhattan on water skis began with a wrong number. Lots of wrong numbers, actually.

“Back in the days when people used phone books,” Ms. Kocy said, “‘Rusk, John,’ who is my husband, was listed immediately under Rusk Institute. And instead of just listing the number, it would say, ‘Please see N.Y.U. School of Medicine — Rehabilitation.’ Either people didn’t read that or, wishful thinking, they’d just call our number. We’d come home to a phone machine with messages like, ‘Yes, I’d like to talk to Dr. Howard’ or ‘Would somebody please call me back, my father has had a stroke.’”

Eventually Mr. Rusk got a separate number for his contracting business — “We rehab houses; they rehab people,” Ms. Kocy said. But the calls continued.

Time passed. She had two daughters. Seven or eight years ago, at the age of 9 or 10, one became friends with a girl whose mother worked at the Rusk Institute. Ms. Kocy was straightforward: “I said, ‘I need your phone number because we get your calls.’”

More time passed. Last summer, her husband bought a boat in Staatsburg, N.Y. “The boat and I are the same vintage,” Ms. Kocy said. “Isn’t that cool? Nineteen fifty-six. The engine’s new. In the boat. The boat. I’m not suggesting I’ve had plastic surgery, because I haven’t. And I won’t. I won’t.”

Ms. Kocy, who had been a swimmer and a lifeguard when she was a teenager, started learning to water-ski.

“I thought, ‘Wonder if I could go all the way around Manhattan,’” she said. “I thought: ‘Maybe I could leverage this by raising money for somebody. Children or veterans.’” She said she had been moved by news reports about soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with problems that were not immediately apparent when they returned.

She talked to her friend from the Rusk Institute, who pointed her to Dr. Steven Flanagan, the chairman of rehabilitative medicine there. He suggested a pilot program to improve understanding of the biological differences between traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, both common among veterans.

“Traumatic brain injury is the signature injury of these wars,” Ms. Kocy said. And the work Dr. Flanagan and his colleagues are doing at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, as the institute is officially known, could have implications, she said, for patients who must deal with the consequences of other kinds of brain problems and disorders like strokes.

Dr. Flanagan said soldiers are surviving injuries that once “would have killed them for sure.”

“Body armor has gotten better,” he added, “and the incredible care they get in the field results in many more lives being saved, but folks who are exposed to a blast can sustain brain injuries. They’re having problems with cognition, thinking. They can’t balance checkbooks. Their families say their personalities have changed.”

Ms. Kocy has scheduled her trip around Manhattan for early Sunday, Sept. 18. If all goes well, her trip should take 90 minutes to two hours. Ms. Kocy has lined up some sponsors for the trip, and would-be contributors can sign uphere. She and Mr. Rusk did a test run on Saturday. “We avoided a 40-foot-long log,” she said, and she has been practicing “going as slow as I can” to be ready for no-wake zones.

She will be hard to miss, because she will be wearing a helmet. Steven Wine, a New York lighting designer, is covering it with waterproof LEDs, she said.

“That’s my headlamp,” she said. “I’m doing it as the sun rises, so it will still be a little dark, and Dr. Flanagan mandated that I wear a helmet. I’ve never seen a water-skier wear a helmet, but as he pointed out, on the off-chance anything happens in the water. …”

September 06, 2011

HUDSON RIVER MILES

HUDSON RIVER MILES

The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem.